Yeah…

Luna is shocked at my inability to blog lately.

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Where I ramble about tv.. movies.. kids… religion

Someone on Facebook was talking about watching Nick shows without their kids around (cough cough my brother) and it got me thinking about the shows we allow our kids to watch and the shows we do not allow them to watch. And our reasoning behind it.

We used to let them watch whatever they wanted. And then one day I watched a icarly with them and was mortified. Most of these shows the kids are doing something they are not supposed to, then they get caught. I don’t want to teach my kids that everything is no big deal. Being sassy to your parents, lying, breaking rules. I know lots of people (cough cough including my brother) disagree with the things we let the girls watch.

Our girls and now Liam watch a lot of movies. I don’t worry about them watching Pirates,Harry Potter or Sorcerers Apprentice. While I know my brother is against HP etc because of witchcraft my beliefs are different. I don’t believe my girls are going to become wizards,pirates or go to Hell for watching those things, where as I know they will look up to icarly or Hannah Montana if given the chance to watch that stuff and I think their behavior will change.

Movies and tv are teachable moments as parents and I feel like giving them free reign to watch what they want is not good for them, and I also believe shielding them from certain movies etc is not good for them as well. Eleanor and G watch Ancient Aliens, Paranormal something or others and she LOVES those things. She loves all things mythical and I don’t see anything wrong with that. Lola loves Sorcerers Apprentice and will watch it a million times.. We watch kid movies and shows too, and we use them as moments to talk to the kids about the behavior of the kids in the movies.

I realize this post sounds really preachy and ZOMG you suck if you let your kids watch that stuff. I don’t care if you do, I am only stating why we don’t. My brother and I have very different parenting styles. And while we are both Christians his beliefs are totally different from mine. ( Hey now God created J.K Rowling I am convinced he knew what he was doing with that one!) Luckily, we don’t live close or those styles might clash more, for now it is saved to Facebook.

The other thing is scary movies. None of my 6 have been scared by them. They have watched pretty much whatever without nightmares. Lola went through a small time where Paranormal Activity scared her but after explaining that none of it is real and it is meant to scare us, she started asking to watch it. We let them all watch pretty much what they want (no porn or sex scenes of course) Movies are our thing around here and everyone has their favorites. Right now Lola and her Sorcerers Apprentice, Emmy and her Ancient Aliens show on netflix or anything about ghosts, and well, Liam will watch anything with trains or cars. We try to focus on none of it being real but it being INTERESTING. I love Eleanor’s love of all things paranormal and alienish. Her Dad is the same way and she is so excited to watch those shows.

Summer is coming soon and we will start our  Dinner and a Movie night, where we cook food related to the movie and have desert named after things in the movie. The girls love it and it opens our eyes to new movies. This year I want to introduce them to Second Hand Lions, Chronicles of Narnia and I need to find some more movies based on books. We have a lot of reading and movie watching to do.

And for something different I introduce our newest family member.

Luna Rufftongue McLickins

Yes, she is named after Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter, just like Bellatrix is named after Bellatrix LaStrange. I wish we had named her Molly Wesley since they seem to hate each other and did in the movie too. haha. She has the cutest black splotch of hair on her head and it looks like she might have some other black spots as well. Bellatrix hates her and they look light night and day (literally too!) next to each other.

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Sunbaby VS BG A Toddler review.

Here is my silly toddler playing in his water table wearing the same sunbaby diaper he was wearing in my last review. ( a little over a year ago!) Read that review here.

Here we are over a year later and still using our sunbaby diapers. Don’t tell G but awhile ago I ordered 3 size 2 of the new sunbaby so expect a review on those soon.They have held up well. You can tell they are not new anymore on the inside and they are not looking like a BG 2 years later but I have to say I reach for the sunbaby more for daily wear than I do the Bum Genius. G likes the BG more because they are hook and loop I prefer snap. The prints have held up amazing and look as new and the pul is still awesome as well. I get the love of BG diapers but they are just not in my budget for a full stash and I have made it two years with the second version of sunbaby diapers and I love them still.

Cloth diapers are scary to buy because you just don’t know if it is going to work for you or not. I was really brave and tried a few WAHM diapers on Etsy. Some were ok and some were horrid. I don’t do that anymore. I try to suggest sunbaby diapers to anyone I meet who needs to start on a small budget, but I always recommend getting better inserts.(Thirsties Hemp are my favorites) I suggest trying to add some BG or other type to your stash as well, not because sunbaby sucks or because they don’t work overnight but because sometimes you just need a super workhorse diaper and I really consider my BG and Fuzzibuns my workhorse diapers. Please feel free to ask me any questions if you have them. Join our FB page and leave us questions on the wall, we see those first! lol

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We gave our killer stove a makeover!

One of the few things we loved about our house is that the owners did not touch much. We really do love a retro look and well, you can’t get anymore retro than original!

The oven is awesome.. not a little awesome but amazing awesome the only thing NOT awesome about it was its color. Pee yellow is just not my thing.

I used my Google-Fu and discovered it really wasn’t a hard process to change up the color of your oven.

We used this and it was easy and inexpensive.

G covered everything:

Excuse the side way nature of this picture. I am no momtographer.

And after spending a few dollars and not very much work  we have this:

I think it came out pretty rad! We have three spots that need touch ups because the tape overlapped but for the most part I think this just looks amazing.

Now my awesomely awesome stove looks and works amazing.

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How to remove Sharpie from a wood table

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Winning crock pot recipe.

My pretty new crock pot in action.

I am not afraid to admit that my cooking skills are lacking. I am no Betty Homemaker and I am perfectly ok with it. In my hunt to become more domesticated and spend less money eating out I have tried to do a new recipe every week. This week I tried Crock Pot Swedish Meatballs. Now, first off the recipe scared the beejesus out of me. I hate mushroom soup and how on earth could the mix of it and powdered gravy come out good? No idea but it was better than good. Even Lola my child who HATES everything and gags through most dinners loved it and had more than one helping. :O

I used 2 packages of frozen meatballs (recipe called for one)

2 cans mushroom soup (low fat is what I used)

2 packages of brown gravy mix

2 cups water

1 tsp Thyme

Cook on low for 6 hours

I moved the meatballs around over the day just to make sure that they were all getting covered. I also cooked egg noodles and had a side of french bread.

On a scale of 1-5 stars I give this a 5 stars. It was THAT good and THAT easy.

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A cloth diaper whine

I was about to throw my cloth diapers out. They had a stink that I could not get rid of. I tried everything and nothing worked. When we moved to Texas, I was using them but not super thrilled about it because I couldn’t get rid of the stink. Lucky for me, (but not G or our budget) we have a cloth diaper store and I went in to cry about my stink issues. She recommended a lifesaver. RLR Laundry Treatment. I had to soak them twice but it worked and our diapers no longer smell. The bonus was she had a Easter special and our egg was worth 20% off so G let me get the BG Albert diaper.(heh, I don’t ask permission on anything but I do discuss budget with him hence the let)

It is SO cute on.

Thank you to Go Baby Go for fixing my issues!

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We’ve moved!

But are far from settled in! For now I will leave you with a picture of our FABULOUS new (to us) bathroom but promise lots of house pictures and more adventures in cloth diapering coming up soon.

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A post with few words.

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Things are so insane

Wonderboy turned 2. Boogie turned 6. Caty flew in from California and I am a content Mama who has 4/6 at home right now.

The snow is melting, the days are getting warmer and I personally loved this winter. We hardly had any snow! I have to admit I am ready for grilling weather and I am ready for visits to the zoo.

I am still reading,reading,reading. Right now I am reading another uplifting book, this one about serial killers. I think my next read will be The Help again. I need a book to make me laugh. I have joined Goodreads if anyone wants to add me. Simplyatomic. I’m looking for some good book suggestions. G is a copy cat and he now has a kindle too. I was shocked when he went to bed to read last night while Caty and I watched ” The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virgina” A MUST see if you have Netflix.

Wonderboy has started talking. Not just a word here or there but total sentences. This morning he told G and I ” Duckie sleeping in Mimi’s room” :O A huge change from a boy who only said COOL CARS a month ago. We havent figured out why he calls Caty “Duckie” But it will probably stick. Just like Yaya did for Ally, Mimi did for Emmy and jerkface for G (ok I made up that last one)

I have huge news to share, I promise maybe hoping I will update this week about all the exciting happenings in the Simply Atomic household.

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